Darwin Was Wrong - Or Just Misinterpreted On A Whim
April 23, 2008
Since I can’t reply on this guys blog and his article is free I am going to post it and do my reply here.
Little Sea Creature - Big Shock for Darwinists by Joel Kontinen
A recent study funded by the National Science Foundation used over 100 computers to analyze the evolutionary history of the Earth’s earliest animals. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin introduced the view that all living organisms form a tree of life from which the various species branch off. Although the tree currently looks more like a bush than a real tree, Darwin’s supporters have not completely discarded his basic idea.
Evolutionary biologists had previously speculated that simple creatures should have diverged from the trunk of the tree before the more complex ones. Accordingly, they believed that the sponge was the first animal to branch off.
However, the results of the research, published in the April 10 issue of the British science journal Nature, were a big surprise and disappointment for evolutionists. Casey Dunn, whose research team made the groundbreaking discovery, said according to physorg.com, “This was a complete shocker, so shocking that we initially thought something had gone very wrong.”
The results were so shocking that the researchers had to check and re-check them several times before they were willing to believe what they had discovered.
The first animal to branch off was not the sponge but the comb jelly. This is significant since the comb jelly has tissues and a nervous system, which are complex systems thought to have evolved much later. A sponge, by contrast, is a more “primitive” creature, lacking both tissue and a nervous system. Dunn thus suggested that the first animal was more complex than previously believed.
In other words, the results were diametrically opposed to the expectations of scientists supporting the theory of evolution. Nonetheless, most of them are probably not prepared to discard their pet theory but will merely attempt to adjust the tree of life, even though part of it is now clearly upside down.
About the Author
Joel Kontinen is a translator and novelist currently living in Finland. His background includes an MA in translation studies and a BA in Bible and theology. He mostly writes about orgins issues.
What Mr Kontinen get wrong is that evolution doesn’t necessarily mean an improvement for the species. There is nothing to say the sponge as we now know it didn’t start off as a more complex organism and evolve to its current state of efficiency, which is the truest goal of evolution. There is also nothing to suggest that the comb jelly didn’t independently evolve into its current state. In fact Casey Dunn mentioned in Mr Kontinen piece actually suggests that in his full article and many other excerpts from it around the web.
Sphere: Related Content
[...] Darwin Was Wrong - Or Just Misinterpreted On A Whim (tags: Casey Dunn Charles Darwin Darwinists discovery Evolutionary Joel Kontinen Journal Nature Mr theory) [...]